by Rachel Smith
12 June 2019
There was a time when I waited with bated breath for every word I’d written to get a run in print (or online). These days, with a lot of bylines under my belt and a lot of projects on the go, I’m more in the ‘take the money and run’ camp.
It is annoying though. I remember waiting over a year once for two travel stories to get a run and it drove me bonkers (because they paid on publication). That publication was on my blacklist after that!
I think you’re definitely within your rights to contact the editor and ask why your articles still haven’t been published and/or when they’re scheduled to run, especially if:
You’re probably also wondering, if they’ve decided not to run it, whether you can on-sell the idea elsewhere. You can’t if they’ve paid you in full. If they decide not to run a piece but pay you a kill fee, you’re usually free to shop it around but check with the commissioning editor as a courtesy.
Hope this helps and let us know what happens!
Listers: do you have articles that have run months or even years later? How do you approach this situation with editors?
